The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has never had a
heavier workload nor played a more important role as arbiter
of the scope of government surveillance than it does today.

But little information about the Court, which was established
by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978,
has been readily available in the public domain -- not even a
complete list of its members.

The FISA Court is responsible for authorizing government
applications for clandestine search and surveillance in
counterintelligence and counterterrorism investigations. In 2002,
the Court reviewed and approved 1228 such applications, an all-time
high.

The Court plays a decisive role in defining the permissible
boundaries of domestic surveillance. When the FBI denies that it
uses the USA Patriot Act to indiscriminately monitor the reading
habits of unsuspecting Americans, it points to the fact that by law
any such surveillance must first be approved by the FISA Court.

But who are the current members of the FISA Court? It's not an
official secret, but neither has it been published.

In particular, the identity of the newest member, the Hon. George P.
Kazen of the Southern District of Texas, has apparently gone
unreported up to now. The Department of Justice identified the
current members of the Court in response to a Freedom of
Information Act request from Secrecy News.

Judge Kazen, who was first named to the bench by President Carter in
1979, was quietly appointed to the FISA Court by Chief Justice
Rehnquist in May of this year. At a time when government
surveillance is increasingly targeted at Middle Eastern Arab men,
it is perhaps noteworthy that Judge Kazen is the grandson of
Lebanese immigrants.

The 2003 roster of the eleven member Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Court is posted here:

The Air Force proposal to lease one hundred Boeing KC-767 aircraft
would be "an immense waste of taxpayer dollars," according to Sen.
John McCain, a fierce critic of the idea. "This is a corporate
bailout for Boeing of tremendous proportions," he said.

The Congressional Research Service has endeavored to produce a
dispassionate review of the issues raised by the controversial
proposal, which will be the subject of hearings this week.

See "The Air Force KC-767 Lease Proposal: Issues for Congress" by
Christopher Bolkcom, Congressional Research Service, August 29:

"Weapons Proliferation and the Military-Industrial Complex of the
People's Republic of China" is the topic of the latest issue of
Commentary, a publication of the Canadian Security Intelligence
Service.

Though derivative of other published sources, it offers a concise
treatment of the subject and proposes answers to blunt questions
such as "Why Does China Continue to Proliferate?" See: